Saturday, October 1, 2016

The British Council is the world's leading cultural relations organization and creates opportunities for people in the UK and worldwide to understand each other, to work together and learn from one another. We see this as crucial to building secure, more prosperous and sustainable futures for us all. We build trust and understanding between different countries and cultures and develop strong international links that are of benefit to people in Britain and the rest of the world.

The Digital and Social Media Manager will be responsible for developing and delivering high quality content across social media channels for the relevant Strategic Business Unit - Exams & Programmes.

The content will be delivered through close liaison with teams in question.

The post holders will be proactive and creative, working collaboratively with colleagues to define and implement digital strategies, plans and campaigns for the Business Units.

British Council Operating ContextCurrent:

Nigeria is one of the largest economies in Africa. It is also the most populous country with over 180 million citizens. The UK is its largest trading partner. Nigeria holds significant political power in the region and internationally and its society retains a positive attitude to the UK.

Therefore, there continue to be major opportunities for the UK and BC to build on our strong existing relationships with the Nigerian government, institutions and customers/audiences.

Partners and clients include government, public and private institutions, foundations, private sector organisations and civil society. We work closely with the wider UK mission including DFID and UKTI.

Nigeria has the largest exams operations in SSA. There are currently over 40 members in the exams team. Nigeria examinations work encompasses Schools exams via our partnership with Cambridge International Education (CIE), IELTS (International English Language Testing System), and a wide range of academic and professional qualifications. Last year, we delivered 90,000 exams on a turnover of £8.2m.

This financial year, there are growth targets to achieve income of £9.2m. Customer service, operational quality and compliance are critical to the business. Developing flexible and appropriate delivery models is vital in responding to the challenges working across the country.

However, there are complex and substantial risks to this work i.e. security and compliance.

Nigeria is the British Council’s largest operation in sub-Saharan Africa with offices in 4 cities – Port Harcourt in the south, Kano in the north, Abuja the Federal capital and Lagos the commercial centre. We also have a number of project offices across the country.

Our 200 staff work across a range of states delivering large scale contracts, partnership programmes, examinations, projects as well as services in Arts, Education & Society and English & Exams. We are already achieving substantial impact and income (current annual income is £27.2 million) and have plans to grow and develop our impact further.

Future:

42% of Nigeria’s population is under 14. The government has recognised that its Vision 2020 must address the aspirations of this young population as part of its drive to achieve peace and prosperity. This has led to unprecedented interest and investment in Education, the Arts and good governance.

This alignment with the UK’s priorities creates a growth environment for the British Council. To be successful in this, we are building understanding with our UK stakeholders of Nigeria as an emerging economy with substantial commercial and development opportunities as well as the challenges they may be more familiar with. In this we seek to integrate our approach with that of the wider UK mission.

This will ensure we develop as well as adopt and use best practice. We also need rigorous and compliant frameworks to support our work in areas such as finance, tax & status, security, procurement, compliance and quality management.

We have new premises in Kano and have a major premises project under development in Abuja. However, there is still more work to be done, especially in Lagos and Port Harcourt to ensure our premises and technology support our brand reputation for integrity, innovation and professionalism.

We are expanding and scaling up our existing programmes, contracts and services in the Arts, Education & Society, English & Examinations and developing offers to fill important gaps such as in Skills.

We are also working to ensure that we have a good balance of partnership, customer services and client funded work across all these sectors. To do all this we need to create the right enabling environment. In addition to developing the professional and technical expertise of our staff, we need to support them to build their relationships within Nigeria, the region and the wider global network.

Accountabilities, Responsibilities and Main DutiesDigital Communications and Social Media:

Working with all teams, to develop, implement and maintain an imaginative and comprehensive social media presence for selected projects using a wide variety of tools, setting ambitious targets and monitoring success.

Working with relevant people within teams in the SBU in order to actively contribute to developing and delivering British Council Nigeria’s ‘overarching’ online presence, enhancing our external profile.

To embed these strategies within the culture of the operation and actively support colleagues in using a wide variety of appropriate tools.

Develop and execute plans to increase page views, unique visitors, dwell time and site ‘stickiness’ to encourage repeat usage.

Identifying and developing engaging online campaigns:

Identify and execute engaging online creative directions for British Council’s projects and examination services that will enhance the council’s online presence and drive online engagement metric objectives as identified.

Identify, build relationships and pro-actively engage with influential bloggers, journalists and on-line commentators and media agencies relevant to our work

Monitor and identify trends in Nigeria social media, market intelligence and insight to support effective strategies, plans and audience reach

Website Management:

Working with local and regional digital team to edit and create new content for the relevant British Council’s country pages on the country website with the aim of increasing interactive engagement and audience reach.

Raise profile of relevant British Council Nigeria SBU internally through working with project teams through consistent reporting of BC Nigeria activity on regional intranet, bulletin and other internal media, updating events calendar, information on directorate, office information

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion:

Ensure that planning, delivery and implementation of managed projects are executed in line with British Council EDI standards

Continuous Professional Development:

Engage in professional networks and continuous professional development to ensure that knowledge and expertise are kept updated.

Other important features or requirements of the JobThe post holder will be expected to travel within Nigeria. As with any business that experiences peaks and troughs of activity, there is likely to be a need to work outside office hours from time to time. Occasional attendance at events during evenings and weekends.Person SpecificationEssential:

Behaviours assessed during interview stage of recruitment process

Making it happen (more demanding): Challenging myself and others to deliver and measure better results

Creating shared purpose (more demanding): Communicating an engaging picture of how we can work together

Working together (essential): Establishing a genuinely common goal with others

Being accountable(more demanding): Putting the needs of the team or British Council ahead of my own